I've met a couple of russians in engineering and science, they come from a variety of schools such as Novosibirsk, Moscow State, MIPT, and others.. They are quite capable, all of them already have a master degree (I think this is standard from Russian Education). The program i think is 5-6 years. All of them are already published in scientific journals before arriving to the US for their PhDs.

I think russian language is a must, except if you plan to go abroad for a summer.